This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Crime

  • More “Private E-mail Server” News

    Remember the Clintoon “private” e-mail server brouhaha?  You know, the one where the serving (at the time) SECSTATE refused to use government email, had her minions set up a “private” email server – which later was professionally wiped, but which has been confirmed to have contained over 2,000 classified items, including 22 items classified Top Secret as well as more than one SAP and/or TS/compartmented item?

    Well, we have some recent news concerning that little “shortcut” taken by Clintoon.  And from Clintoon’s perspective, the news isn’t that good.

    First:  the Romanian hacker “Guccifer” was extradited to the US a few weeks ago.  That apparently was not coincidental.  You see, it appears “Guccifer” – who is currently in Federal custody – may well now be cooperating with the FBI in their investigation of related to the Clintoon “private” e-mail server.  (The administrator of that “private” e-mail server, Bryan Pagliano, is also believed to be cooperating with the FBI.)

    It also appears that Guccifer penetrated the Clintoon “private e-mail server” – easily.  He claims to have done exactly that.  While the claim cannot be independently verified now (due largely to destruction of the original server), longtime cybersecurity experts who have knowledge of his claims say that the method Guccifer claims to have used to penetrate what little security did exist on Clintoon’s “private” e-mail server is eminently plausible.

    The “so what”?  Well, “Guccifer” may well be quite good at breaking computer security – and security on Clintoon’s “private e-mail server” was reportedly rudimentary at best.  But I’m betting the foreign intelligence services of Russia, China, and maybe a few other adversaries are likely even better than Guccifer, and have access to even better methods and tools.  And if Guccifer relatively easily penetrated that private server and thus obtained access to the classified information illegally stored there, well, . . . .

    Second:  it also appears that Clintoon may be forced to give a deposition regarding the case.  So far, she’s been spared the “horror” of telling her story under conditions requiring a truthful answer – like a LE interview, or a deposition given under oath.  Looks like the latter may be upcoming, presumably in the relatively near-term future.

    Third:  while Clintoon herself hasn’t yet been deposed, apparently the same is not true of her “close aide” Huma Abedin.  Abedin was reportedly interviewed by the FBI recently.  And while the FBI hasn’t commented on the interview, I’m guessing it wasn’t a social call to discus the weather, or to ask her opinion on the latest fashions. (smile)

    And, finally:  a curious expense on the part of the Clintoon campaign has been uncovered and made public.  In Feb and March, apparently the Clintoon campaign made payments to a Nevada company – a firm that provides IT security services.  What services do they provide?  Well, it seems that the company – American Document Destruction, Inc. –  apparently specializes in document and hard disk drive destruction.  The payments could have paid for the destruction of up to 14 hard drives.  Hmm.

    Yeah, I think I’ll keep following this story.  This could easily get really interesting.

     

    (Author’s note:  yes, I know that “Clintoon” isn’t the way the individuals I reference when using that spelling spell their last name.  The variant spelling here is intentional.  IMO, the individuals I’m referencing when using that variant spelling are little more than poor cartoonish caricatures of individuals worthy of holding high national office.  The spelling “Clintoon” is intended to highlight that fact.)

  • Triston Marquell Chase, that Fort Bragg squatter

    Triston Marquell Chase, that Fort Bragg squatter

    Triston

    We wrote a bit about this fellow, Triston Chase, when he was found living in the barracks at Fort Bragg last December, since then, the Army has conducted an investigation of the fellow and it looks like he stole or bought someone’s ID card that granted him a free pass to Fort Bragg facilities. From the Military.com;

    Chase allegedly used the ID card of another soldier, which he found or stole, to get on base. He then got a key to the barracks from someone other than the barracks manager. To get out of physical training and other formations, he told people that he was an explosive ordnance disposal technician attending a top secret school. Once in the barracks, he set up a cozy life for himself.

    He invited women, who would often bring food, into the third-floor room. Other soldiers reported that he conducted room inspections and signed rooms out to new soldiers. So, this squatter successfully gained the ability to run the building he was illegally staying in.

    He also borrowed vehicles from soldiers in the barracks and filled his Snapchat account with photos from around the building.

    There were reports of him leading formations around the Army post, too.

    Then, he got busted for DUI by the local police which unraveled the whole scheme.

    Well, according to a link sent to us by Bobo, he missed a court appearance yesterday;

    Chase, 20, was scheduled to appear in Superior Court on charges of financial card theft, identify theft, larceny of a firearm, breaking and entering, larceny after breaking and entering and possession of stolen goods. His lawyer, Allen Lytch, did not return a request for comment Tuesday morning.

    The Harnett County Clerk of Court’s Office was unable to determine late Tuesday if a warrant had been issued for his arrest.

    […]

    The civilian – and Chase, according to state court records – has six felony charges from 2014, including identity theft and larceny of a firearm, pending in Harnett County.

    In the Harnett County case, Chase is accused of stealing a Citibank credit card, Sig Sauer P-225 handgun and Mossberg 500A shotgun, a large survival knife and electronics from a home on the 100 block of New Castle Lane in Spring Lake, according to court records. He allegedly ordered a pizza with the stolen credit card.

    Well, who would have seen that coming? Maybe Stevie Wonder from space.

  • Another Reason to Be Thankful You Live in the USA

    If you ever wanted another good reason to thank God you’re NOT an expresso-sipping, cheese-eating Metrosexual Euroweenie – here it is.

    Recently, a German comedian wrote a satirical and suggestive poem about a public figure.  He recited the poem on a German TV show.

    Unfortunately, in Europe their concept of freedom of speech (and of freedom in general) isn’t quite the same as ours.  The public figure was insulted – and requested a criminal investigation of the comedian be opened.

    Why?  It seems here that the public figure here was Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan – a foreign head-of-state.  And under an obscure provision of German law, that is not legal in Germany.  Specifically, insulting a foreign head-of-state violates Article 103 of Germany’s penal code.  And that “crime” carries a maximum penalty of 3 years in prison – or up to 5 years if it is deemed a “slanderous insult”.

    No, I’m not joking.

    On Ergodan’s request, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has approved initiation of a criminal investigation into the matter.   She’s also indicated she will “move to repeal the controversial and little-used Article 103 of the penal code” by 2018.

    Yeah, I’m sure the German comedian in question is just thrilled to hear about the latter.

    Logically, this should go over well in Berkeley and similar places.  After all, criminalizing free speech helps to create “safe spaces” where people are protected from “disturbing speech and ideas”.  But in the rest of the US . . . maybe not so much.

    Any American who doesn’t thank God daily that they are an American is a damned fool.

  • Honduran cartel kidnapping squad busted in Alabama

    According to an AL.com article, police officers in Oxford, Alabama, during a traffic stop, encountered three illegal aliens who were being paid $60,000 to rob a house and kidnap it’s residents to turn over to a Honduran drug kingpin.

    Camilo Antonio Espinoza-Medrano, 31, of Honduras and backseat passengers Josue Lopez Benegas, 24, of Honduras, and Enrique Echeverria Benitez, 24, of Mexico were each charged Friday with being Illegal Aliens in Possession of a Firearm, federal court records show.

    […]

    On March 25, Oxford Police Officer David Cash was notified by a local citizen, who reported observing two males climbing over his fence onto his private property. The citizen then followed a white four-door vehicle in which the two men had left the property.

    The citizen pointed out a white four-door car to Cash, who observed it travelling westbound on Bynum Boulevard in Oxford. Cash caught up to the vehicle near the intersection of Bynum Boulevard and Beck Road and initiated a traffic stop of the Dodge Dart

    When Cash stopped the vehicle and made contact with the driver, two males in the back seat were wearing camouflage.

    Cash recovered a Smith & Wesson pistol – model SD9 – with an attached laser and a loaded magazine containing 15 rounds from the glovebox. The Smith & Wesson pistol was confirmed stolen by the Arlington, Texas Police Department.

    Cash also recovered a loaded Caspian Arms .45 caliber pistol from under the driver’s seat and from the trunk a Smith & Wesson M&P 9mm pistol and a SIG Sauer SP2022 pistol and loaded magazines. “Other items found in the vehicle included a tactical vest, a knife, utility rope, a machete, handcuffs, and a black ski mask,” according to the affidavit.

    Benegas told the Feds that he was paid and equipped by a Honduran drug lord and enforcer. Medrano had been ordered to deport himself in 2014 by an immigration judge, apparently, he failed to comply. Benitez had prior drug and evasion convictions in Texas. All three are in the US illegally, of course.

  • “. . . . individuals are just not being held accountable for gun crimes”

    Jonn published an article yesterday based on this story.  But there are a couple of points here I thought warranted further emphasis, so I’m doing a follow-up.

    First point:  IMO significantly, Chicago police are decidedly not blaming this uptick in violent crime on fallout from the SCOTUS’s decision in McDonald v. Chicago (2010).  Rather, here they’re pointing the finger squarely at the courts – who in the opinion of Chicago’s police effectively are running a “revolving-door” prison system through excessive use of probation, short sentences for violent crimes, and early release of violent felons.

    Gee.  Not holding violent felons accountable for their crimes – specifically, by letting them out of prison after only a short incarceration, or by not incarcerating them at all – leads to more violent crime from the same violent felons.  Who’d a thunk that? Well, judges (and prosecutors; more about them below), lemme tell you: anyone with even a single iota of common sense could have told you that.  And now, the police have just told you exactly the same damn thing.

    It’s not that hard of a concept to grasp.  Bad actions that have few meaningful negative consequences simply are not deterred.  Instead, they’re repeated.  And running a “revolving-door prison system” through extensive use of short sentences, probation, and early release is a classic example of “bad actions having few meaningful negative consequences.”

    Second point: what’s just as significant here IMO is what the police are not requesting be done.  Remember:  this is “we love gun control by law” Chicago.  But here, the police are not calling for new gun control laws to fix a “gun violence” problem.  Instead, here they fairly clearly say that existing laws are sufficient; it is instead enforcement of these laws that is lacking – specifically, the post-conviction consequences part of enforcement.  They’ve therefore called for sentencing that takes violent felons “off the street” for protracted periods – mandated by changes to those portions of law involving sentencing as necessary.

    Based on this last point, anyone with common sense can see that new gun laws simply aren’t necessary to fix the problem; effectively enforcing those laws already “on the books”  is what’s needed.  It’s a point Jonn’s made repeatedly here at TAH, but it’s worth repeating here again.

    I’d like to think that judges (and prosecutors:  as commenter 2/17 Air Cav observed in comments to Jonn’s article yesterday, near-universal prosecutor willingness to “plea bargain” indiscriminately in order to keep conviction rates up is a second, big part of the problem) in Illinois and elsewhere will “get with the program” here and actually start taking dangerous, violent felons off the street for long stretches of time; it’s within their power now to do exactly that at sentencing.  But I’m not holding my breath – especially since there are now proposals in Congress to reduce or do away with mandatory minimum sentences for many Federal felonies. See the Fox News link (second link above, or in Jonn’s article) for details.

  • Chicago admits that criminals commit crimes

    Hondo sends us a link from Fox News that discusses the high rate of gun crimes in Chicago. According to the article, there have been more than 800 shootings in the city this year and, at the time the article was written, 133 Chicagoans had been murdered so far this year, compared to 77 during the same time period last year. The city blames the judicial system. For example, Lamar Harris had been arrested 43 times and convicted of felony charges seven times before he shot three of Chicago’s police officers a few weeks ago.

    [Former Chicago Police Department Chief of Patrol Eddie] Johnson, unlike many of the city’s African-American elected officials, is seeking tougher sentencing laws. Over the coming weeks, he plans to be “asking our legislative partners in the near future to help us” pass new laws that will ensure judges throw the book at violent offenders.

    It’s become easy for police to predict who will be on both ends of the explosion in gun violence. Some two-thirds of murder victims are already on the Police Department’s “strategic subject list,” [SSL] a roster of residents identified as being at risk of being a victim or an offender of gun violence. The list is kept so police can carry out lifestyle intervention efforts.

    In one weekend in late March, 76 percent of shooting victims were on the SSL and 95 percent had lengthy criminal histories.

    It seems to me that, if Chicago wants to protect victims, those predicted victims should be able to arm themselves.

    “We are arresting people,” [Chicago Police spokesman Anthony] Guglielmi told FoxNews.com. “And we are arresting the right people. We are facing a long-term problem and that is that individuals are just not being held accountable for gun crimes.

    “What we need to do is remove the repeat offenders from society because they are exacerbating the problem of crime,” he added.

    The problem is the same one that we face in the war against terror – politicians aren’t willing to make consequences harder for those who terrorize average law-abiding people. For example, one of the longest-serving persons on death row in Texas, died of old age the other day. Jack Harry Smith had been on death row since 1978 – he even criticized the system for imprisoning him for so long. The urban culture romanticizes and idolizes those who serve time in prison. That’s been going on in Chicago for decades, since prohibition. Prison life isn’t hard enough to convince repeat offenders that they don’t want to go back.

  • Devin Washington gets a job

    Devin Washington gets a job

    Devin Washington

    Chooee sends us link to the story of 18-year-old Devin Washington (center in the picture above) who was interviewing for a job with Manager Danyanna Metoyer and assistant manager Dominique Griffin when this happened;

    Pablo Ciscart, 50, asked the cashier to make change for a dollar, reached into the cash drawer, grabbed a handful of cash and attempted to run away.

    Metoyer blocked the exit and Washington grabbed Ciscart in a “reverse bear hug.”

    Ciscart, realizing he couldn’t escape, threw the money on the floor and gave up. Washington and cook Michael Ford held him until police arrived.

    Needless to say, Devin got the job. I guess there are some teenagers out there who know the proper way to be able to afford their clothing and the things they need. According to People, Devin said “It was the right thing for me to do because I was raised the right way.” Isn’t that always the way?

    Washington was known as a peacemaker at the inner-city school. When fights would break out, he would use his size and the respect he commanded to quell the violence.

    “I was the big guy on campus, it was up to me to do it,” he says.

    […]

    Washington says he was once adrift in life, struggling with what he described as “an anger problem,” but that he developed a sense of purpose when his daughter was born.

    “It was time for me to be a man, not to play around and be a kid,” he says

  • Cornelia V. Hurling, VA fiduciary sentenced

    Cornelia V. Hurling, VA fiduciary sentenced

    Cornelia V. Hurling

    Cornelia V. Hurling was a fiduciary for Veterans Affairs (VA) – she had the responsibility of caring for veterans and their financial affairs when the VA deemed them to be unable to do so for themselves. So she helped herself to $141,734.22 from 22 veterans she cared for over a period of five years, according to Brietbart. A federal judge sentenced her to fourteen months in the company of the US Bureau of Prisons.

    The violation of Title 38, United States Code, section 6101 is a felony. She was indicted by a grand jury in early March of 2015.

    In addition to her sentence, Judge Ezra also ordered Hurling to pay the full amount in restitution for the funds she had misappropriated.

    After Hurling serves her sentence in federal prison, she will be placed on supervised release for a period of three years.

    From the San Antonio Express;

    She had opened bank accounts for all 22, but she was also the signatory on a business bank account for Educational Health Care or EHC, which she incorporated in Texas in July 2008 and served as director, and an account she shared with her daughter, the plea paperwork said.

    A review of her business and personal accounts showed Hurling was the primary user, and that she deposited money from veterans’ accounts into the EHC account in amounts greater than her VA-authorized fiduciary fee.

    “In most of those instances, the funds were not used for any of the veterans’ benefit,” the plea paperwork said. “Rather, the debits on the account were for Hurling’s personal use. For example, Hurling spent money on meals, lawn service, handyman repairs, and movie rentals.”

    I don’t know how they figure she’ll be able to pay the money back and I doubt any of it will make to the veterans anyway. But there it is.

    Thanks to Thunderstixx for the link.